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From: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Software (and other kinds of) copying
Message-ID: <6526@oberon.USC.EDU>
Date: 27 Jan 88 18:13:34 GMT
References: <21754@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> <229@wright.EDU> <886@xn.LL.MIT.EDU>
Sender: nobody@oberon.USC.EDU
Reply-To: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa)
Organization: Felsina Software, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 19

In article <886@xn.LL.MIT.EDU> olsen@ll-xn.UUCP (Jim Olsen) writes:
>If I copy a program which I would never pay for, the copyright holder
>loses nothing, since he wouldn't get any money from me anyway.  In such
>a situation, the copying is illegal, but I would not consider it immoral.

This is exactly one of the cases in which "registering" with the 
copyright office makes a difference.  If you do NOT register your work 
with the copyright office, you can only collect "actual" damages, which
in the above case is $0.   If you register your work with the copyright
office WITHIN 3 MONTHS from publication you can ask for "statutory" 
damages, which are decided in court and have NO set limit.

While I know of no case in which an individual has
been sued for illegaling copying software (but I might be wrong), several
authors/publishers have gotten large court awards for "company-sponsored 
illegal copying".  In all these cases the 3-month registration clause was
essential in getting the large awards. 

-- Marco